A cut away vest that may be simply and quickly removed in emergency situations. The vest is particularly usable in tactical and military operations.
Vests, particularly those used in tactical and military operations are well known. The vests are used to carry personal supplies and equipment, e.g., ammunition clips, flashlights, radios and first aid supplies. The vests can also be used to carry bullet resistant armor to help protect the wearer from being wounded in vital body areas. However, the vests have many drawbacks. One problem encountered with such vests is their weight when loaded with supplies. Soldiers have been known to drown because of the weight of the vests which may in part be due to a soldier's inability to remove the vest in an emergency situation. Proposals have been made to improve such vests. An example of a vest of the cut away style, i.e., removable by the soldier without having to unfasten belts and other typical retainers, can be found in published U.S. Patent Application 2002/0120973 to T. B. D'Annunzio. This type of vest is referred to as a cut away vest in which through the use of a release device the entire vest can be removed by the soldier without having to unfasten a series of buckles, clips, hook and loop fasteners, etc. This particular vest utilizes front and rear torso portions with the rear torso portion including a cummerbund to help retain the rear torso portion to the waist of a user. A waist belt is also provided to help retain the front and rear torso portions to the waist of the user. Shoulder straps are provided with the strap portions on the front torso portion being connected to the strap portions on the rear torso portion. Four cables are attached to a handle with each cable being used to releasably retain one of each of the two shoulder straps, the cummerbund and the belt as a unit and when the cables are pulled, these components are released allowing the vest to drop off of the user.
Such a structure though, presents problems. Multiple points of attachments are used, each utilizing a separate cable for release. Each of the cables goes through a loop. A loop is formed by inserting strap portion through the hole in a buckle or the like with the axis of the loop opening being fixed by the buckle and the strap or strap to which it is attached. When viewing these connections, particularly at the shoulder straps, the cables bend generally to a right angle requiring the cable to be pulled around a corner for release from the loop and buckle arrangement. The use of four cables also requires additional time to assemble the vest. The use of such a cable arrangement makes it unnecessarily difficult to release the vest from the wearer. Also, the rear shoulder portions of the shoulder straps are connected to the front shoulder strap portions complicating use and construction of the vest. When the vest is “cut away,” the belt is separated from the vest at two ends, the cummerbund is separated at one end and each of the shoulder straps is separated into the front and rear portions at the top of the shoulders.
As discussed, even though the above described vest provides advantages over non-cut away constructions, improvement is still needed.